No it doesn't. This was a former employee. Not someone who works there now. You honestly think if he was still employed there he could've said any of this?Evil Smurf said:
I don't think I can laugh hard enough.
Blizzard Admits Diablo III Auction House Was a Mistake
- Thread starter Steven Bogos
- Start date
I don't think I can laugh hard enough.
No, they knew. They just didn't think the average player would figure out just how broken the game is.Mr.K. said:
I tried not using it for the longest time, but I was getting murdered on Act 2 Hell. Not even inferno and my gear was underleveled. Got frustrated and used the auction house, jumped from doing ~8000 damage to ~19,000 for about 10000 gold. The fact that I had to use it at all to progress is what really kills me. At least they acknowledge the mistake though.
Man, I felt a real sadness reading that. It just seems the guy is genuinely regretful about the AH.
On the other had, his comments on how they didn't expect the players to use it this much make me wonder just how out of touch some people in Blizzard may be.
On the other had, his comments on how they didn't expect the players to use it this much make me wonder just how out of touch some people in Blizzard may be.
okay, here's the thing
this albatross is still the reason why people can't go offline
and until both this and that are satisfied, you're not really there yet
if they didn't think people would use the auction house for the wrong reasons than
why did they do it
why was this part of their design
there's this huge, glaring hole in their plans
as to what logic was behind this development in the first place
frankly it's baffling
this is like square enix levels of giant hole in game design ignorance
this albatross is still the reason why people can't go offline
and until both this and that are satisfied, you're not really there yet
if they didn't think people would use the auction house for the wrong reasons than
why did they do it
why was this part of their design
there's this huge, glaring hole in their plans
as to what logic was behind this development in the first place
frankly it's baffling
this is like square enix levels of giant hole in game design ignorance
I found it arrogant, how he only talked about the AH, and not the terrible gameplay itself. I don't even want to talk about the writing/story.
It's painful, this contrived farce of an apology.
"We have expansions for this failed game! So, go out and bullshit people with miserable apologies. Maybe, just maybe, we will get some suckers to buy it."
It's painful, this contrived farce of an apology.
"We have expansions for this failed game! So, go out and bullshit people with miserable apologies. Maybe, just maybe, we will get some suckers to buy it."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA No.RatherDull said:
If they actually wanted to prevent piracy, they'd offer a better service. Use control-F "Russia" in this:
http://www.geekwire.com/2011/experiments-video-game-economics-valves-gabe-newell/
So you can see the point I'm making.
Always-on is there to prevent Item duping, that would drastically impact Auction House pricings. Since they had a Real Money Auction House implemented, having people produce money out of thin air with duping was a very understandable concern, so an always-online requirement (and thus, game saves being server-side) was implemented to prevent it.
Let me see if I got this straight:
They would rather it wasn't in the game because it made the game worse...
...but they don't dare just shut it off because some players might be enjoying it...
...but a lot of players are NOT enjoying it and at best feel pressured into using it.
So on one hand we have a mechanic that's making the game worse and players aren't enjoying it, and on the other hand we have the removal of that mechanic (which would likely make the game better) which MIGHT upset some players. In the end, someone isn't going to be happy, but one option leaves you with a better game. And that's the option you will NOT be taking?
Yeah, bullshit.
This statement basically translates as "We know we fucked up, but we really like the moneyz we're getting from the AH so we won't be turning it off. You know, "for your sake" *wink*".
This is a PR stunt, nothing more. Ignore it and move on.
They would rather it wasn't in the game because it made the game worse...
...but they don't dare just shut it off because some players might be enjoying it...
...but a lot of players are NOT enjoying it and at best feel pressured into using it.
So on one hand we have a mechanic that's making the game worse and players aren't enjoying it, and on the other hand we have the removal of that mechanic (which would likely make the game better) which MIGHT upset some players. In the end, someone isn't going to be happy, but one option leaves you with a better game. And that's the option you will NOT be taking?
Yeah, bullshit.
This statement basically translates as "We know we fucked up, but we really like the moneyz we're getting from the AH so we won't be turning it off. You know, "for your sake" *wink*".
This is a PR stunt, nothing more. Ignore it and move on.
Oh, you were doing so well until you revealed that you haven't actually played the game - precisely this modifier is the entire point of the Monster Power system.Yan007 said:
Um. Yeah. Screaming "PR STUNT!" at this is missing the point that you can't just put the toothpaste back in the tube. The auction house is out there now, and without a complete restructuring - so complete that it might as well be called Diablo 4 - they can't simply up and get rid of it.
Diablo 3 was clearly built around the idea of RMAH, so I am not buying for a second this supposed apology. If you played through to Inferno at least once, you would know beyond the shadow of doubt that this is true. After every patch Blizzard deliberatly crashed gold AH and did nothing to prevent inflation of gold AH, to force players to use RMAH. Always online is also used to this purpose.
The main reasons this game failed was the always on DRM which was not necessary for what is in essence a single player game and the shitty canned progression of your characters. It was anemic compared to Diablo 2.
You know what was messed up about D3? The AH made those of us who prefer regular gaming suffer. I may be forgetting the specifics here, so forgive me.
I went through the entire game on what was the normal difficulty. As I usually do with games, I went through every dungeon, I swept every map. I am quite thorough when I play games like this. I left piles of dead creatures strewn in my wake. And during that entire time, I saw not one item classified above "Rare".
Okay, I thought, this game won't drop anything better than rares at this difficulty. So I started again at the next difficulty up. I got through a little over half the game and I hadn't found anything any better than the equipment I already had. Nothing.
It was at that point I came to the realization that this wasn't the game I was looking for. This game was meant to be played by farming encounters for super rare drops and then posting those drops on the AH. Regular players such as myself were never going to find anything of interest on our own, we were expected to buy it off the AH.
As I am utterly uninterested in such "gameplay", that's the point at which the game was shelved. I am of the opinion that if I can't earn something in a game myself, I don't want to have it. I play MMOGs the same way. I do not want other people to earn stuff for me. For me, that is akin to cheating, and it sullies any future victories I might have (did I really kill the Foo, or was it just because I bought that awesome bit of armor off the AH?).
As that was clearly NOT the attitude of the D3 developers, I said "See ya!" and moved on.
I went through the entire game on what was the normal difficulty. As I usually do with games, I went through every dungeon, I swept every map. I am quite thorough when I play games like this. I left piles of dead creatures strewn in my wake. And during that entire time, I saw not one item classified above "Rare".
Okay, I thought, this game won't drop anything better than rares at this difficulty. So I started again at the next difficulty up. I got through a little over half the game and I hadn't found anything any better than the equipment I already had. Nothing.
It was at that point I came to the realization that this wasn't the game I was looking for. This game was meant to be played by farming encounters for super rare drops and then posting those drops on the AH. Regular players such as myself were never going to find anything of interest on our own, we were expected to buy it off the AH.
As I am utterly uninterested in such "gameplay", that's the point at which the game was shelved. I am of the opinion that if I can't earn something in a game myself, I don't want to have it. I play MMOGs the same way. I do not want other people to earn stuff for me. For me, that is akin to cheating, and it sullies any future victories I might have (did I really kill the Foo, or was it just because I bought that awesome bit of armor off the AH?).
As that was clearly NOT the attitude of the D3 developers, I said "See ya!" and moved on.
This is the nature of the AAA games industry. Tone-deaf developers realizing far too late what players could have, and often tried to tell them during the development process.
To late
Its done, Diablo III is now known as that one game with the AH. Its done it is over.. the whole planning and strategy that one could go into in Diablo II, Diablo III doesn't has it anymore.
Hell with patches that lower the amount of decent drop they are driving players to the AH.
And now Diablo III is just a .. well.. it losts it charm.
Its done, Diablo III is now known as that one game with the AH. Its done it is over.. the whole planning and strategy that one could go into in Diablo II, Diablo III doesn't has it anymore.
Hell with patches that lower the amount of decent drop they are driving players to the AH.
And now Diablo III is just a .. well.. it losts it charm.
People referring to others as "lazy" for what they do in a video game never grows old.RoBi3.0 said:
Ever stop to think that maybe these people are too busy busting their butts at work to be ABLE to spend much time in a game? And because they work so much the bit of extra money means less than the time they could spend doing fun things instead of mindlessly grinding?
Anyhow. The admission is nice, though at this point it just seems like some very late damage control to lull lost gamers into trusting them again for their next games.
I mean, they state they had no idea the Auction House would be so big, yet they purposely restricted drops to such a low level to make the AH a necessity. Something tells me they don't really regret this move--what with the piles of cash it doubtlessly made them--but regret the customers it lost that they want to buy the next big thing they do.